奇妙なサーカス (Strange Circus)

Available Summary:

"The erotic novelist Taeko is writing a morbid story of a family destroyed by incest, murder and abuse. Her assistant, Yûji, sets on a mission to uncover the reality of this story, but the reality might be too much to bear." -IMDb.

Jack's Summary:

For starters, I highly recommend reading Alyssa Miller's review of this film. Strange Circus deals with many themes which are extremely confronting and deserve dedicated in-depth critique. Miller, a survivor of child sexual abuse, eloquently and thoroughly reviews Strange Circus in a way I simply cannot.

In summary, while Miller asserts that the movie is an "incredibly accurate portrayal of the long-term effects of sexual abuse on children", this film will not be watchable for many people. There is gore, child abuse, spousal abuse, incestuous rape, self harm, suicide, torture, forced voyeurism and exhibitionism... the list goes on. My personal opinion is that this movie is grotesque and awful, but that's the aim. If you're really into horror drama and have a very high tolerance for awful shit, you might even enjoy the campy, exaggerated violence with which the trans male gets his revenge. But otherwise, Strange Circus may not be worth the distress it could cause.

Within the genre of Japanese ero-guro (huge qualifier there), this is a good film. The trans man who is violent and unpredictable and threatening isn't the embodiment of a classic anti-trans trope. His motivations are thoroughly explored. If anything, he's portrayed as a survivor of years-long abuse, who also has the superhuman strength to exact revenge beyond what most people would be capable of.

When it comes to his gender identity, Yûji explains his female-to-male transition by saying, "To me, the body is a vase you put your flowers in... I wanted to be a vase that compliments the flowers." Put simply, he wanted his external appearance (his sex) to match his internal reality (his gender). While also entwined with self-mutilation themes and body horror (his top surgery scars are incredibly unrealistic), his trans identity is ultimately presented as an expression of autonomy and inherent gender incongruence. He felt that he was a man, at heart, so he manifested that truth.

There is a scene in this film where Yûji walks alongside his younger self, the pair of them literally taking a stroll through their memories and watching as traumatic events play out. It's utterly baffling that this movie, which is disgusting and repugnant in so many ways, could present such a poignant and gentle illustration of a trans man being at peace with who he used to be, and with trauma from his childhood. I wouldn't exactly recommend watching this film, but it is amazing in that way.

I couldn't exactly call the ending "happy", but Yûji is ultimately victorious against his abusers.